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Obama's stimulus pours millions into faith-based groups

At least $140 million in stimulus money has gone to faith-based groups. |
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The federal government worked quietly to encourage faith-based groups to apply for grants. A November e-mail obtained by POLITICO from the Environmental Protection Agency, for instance, encourages churches and other faith-based institutions to apply for Department of Energy funding.

"In past months, there has been some uncertainty and erroneous information regarding this issue," Jerry Lawson, national manager for the EPA's Energy Star Small Business & Congregations Network, wrote to a group that included officials for religious groups, passing on an agency memo stressing that "the Recovery Act has no prohibitions on the use of Recovery Act funds ... to benefit churches/faith-based institutions."

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Because much of the federal stimulus flowed from agencies to the states, the extent of faith-based funding also varied widely by region. Many of the Department of Energy grants that went to religious institutions were in New York, Wyoming and Indiana. And many of the big-city Catholic archdioceses — like New York, Chicago and Denver — got a great deal of funding.

In one energy-efficiency program administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, at least $1 million in stimulus money was handed out to religious schools, charities and institutions across the state.

NYSERDA spokesman Jeffrey Gordon said the funds were allocated through a competitive grant-based process open to organizations including 501(c)(3)s — a category that includes most churches and religious institutions.

"The fact that they use energy to operate a building is what qualifies them. The reason that we give them money is that they operate a building, and these programs are designed to help them become more energy efficient," he said.

The funding, organizations said, filled small gaps and got long-awaited projects off the ground. Federal records show the funding going for everything from equipment for preparing school lunches at Brooklyn yeshivas to preventing domestic violence and crisis intervention through national Catholic organizations.

In Laramie, the new windows at the Church of St. Laurence O'Toole's school had been on the to-do list for years. "We're feeling kind of good about it," said Tom Wilhelm, the school's principal.

In Indianapolis, "we replaced old equipment with new, with half the money coming from this grant," said Scott Mork, director of operations for Castleton United Methodist Church.

The new windows and stoves for schools, the stocked food pantries and the revitalized homeless shelters amount to an unusually large new wave of federal funding for religious institutions and to a kind of partisan consensus on what had long been a divisive issue — one for which Obama's religious allies say he doesn't get enough political credit.

"It is something the Obama administration should get credit for and more people should know about — even if there are some folks on the left who this would disturb," said Nathan Diament, director of public affairs at the right-leaning Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations, who also sits on the Faith Advisory Council.

He added that he believed the new White House chief of staff, Pete Rouse, "is looking for new opportunities to highlight policies of the administration that do shatter some of the narratives."

The White House's DuBois said the administration is aware of the allegations of politicization that dogged Bush's religious outreach.

"There was an implication in the past that only certain and selected groups were engaged, and that may be because it was seen as a part of a political strategy," he said. "We've been explicit that our work to engage faith-based and community-based nonprofits, while it's extraordinarily robust, it's not part of a political strategy."

When it comes to BS, big-time, major league BS, you have to stand in awe of the all-time champion of false promises and exaggerated claims, religion. No contest. No contest. Religion. Religion easily has the greatest ******** story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there's an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever 'til the end of time! But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He's all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can't handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, you talk about a goodBS story. Holy S**t!

It is a shame that we need the Marshall Plan for the United States. Thank Barney Frank , and Dodd , and their friends at FANNIE and FREDDIE for taking down our financial system and causing this depression.

SOUNDS A LOT LIKE A DOUBLE STANDARD TO ME, BUT WHAT ELSE WOULD WE GET FROM MSM

In 2001, President Bush issued his first executive order as president. He created a program to encourage religious organizations to receive taxpayer funds to perform social services. The Office of Faith-Based Initiatives, as it was called, infuriated many. Civil libertarians said it violated the separation of church and state, liberals suggested that the office was paying off political supporters, and even Christian conservatives worried about the tentacles of government regulation.

The Village Voice fretted over Mr. Bush's "plan to let churches run the government's welfare system" and his "march toward turning the U.S. into a religious state." Former Clinton adviser Sidney Blumenthal wrote an article on Salon.com about the faith-based efforts with the subtitle: "By pandering to Christian zealots, Bush has come close to establishing a national religious party."

David Klein.Now that Mr. Bush is gone, however, no one seems particularly worried about the entanglement of the federal government with religious organizations. A recent study sponsored by the Pew Charitable Trusts found that President Obama's "faith-based initiative has so far generated little of the contentious press coverage associated with Bush's effort."

Obama Executive Order On ‘Faith-Based’ Initiative Is Disappointing, Says Americans United

November 17, 2010

Church-State Watchdog Group Says Order Does Some Good Things, But Ignores Religion-Based Job Bias In Federally Funded Programs

Today’s White House executive order on “faith-based” funding fails to correct significant constitutional problems and leaves important civil rights issues unresolved, says Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

Americans United applauded President Barack Obama’s decision to require federal agencies to provide alternatives for people who do not want to receive social services at religious charities and also welcomed a process to create greater transparency in the program by requiring that recipient organizations be listed on government Web sites.

But AU is disappointed that the order allows public funds to go directly to houses of worship, allows publicly funded faith-based charities to display religious signs and scriptures and entirely dodges the issue of religious hiring bias by faith-based charities that receive federal funds.

“I’m disappointed,” said the Rev. Barry W. Lynn, executive director of Americans United. “This leaves much of George W. Bush’s faith-based initiative in place. That’s not the change many Americans hoped for when President Obama took office.

“I am particularly frustrated that President Obama still has done nothing to ban hiring bias by publicly funded religious charities,” continued Lynn. “That’s the 800-pound gorilla in the room. No American should be denied a government-funded job because he or she holds the ‘wrong’ views about religion.”

Lynn noted that Obama, as a candidate, vowed to repeal this policy. Today’s order, however, leaves the Bush-era rules in places. A wide array of religious, civil rights and civil liberties organizations have appealed to the president to take action on the issue, and polls show that Americans overwhelmingly oppose faith-based employment bias.

Lynn said he is still hopeful Obama will see the basic unfairness of publicly funded job discrimination and rescind the Bush policy.

“I don’t believe Barack Obama wants to go down in history as the president who helped George W. Bush roll back civil rights and religious liberty,” Lynn said. “At a time when jobs are scarce, it is especially troubling that qualified applicants can be rejected from government-funded positions because they don’t go to the ‘right’ church.

“Taxpayer money should never be used to underwrite religion or religious bias,” Lynn concluded. ”That’s a fundamental constitutional principle, and it needs to be observed.” Americans United has been wary of the faith-based initiative since the concept was first introduced in the 1990s by then-Sen. John Ashcroft. AU maintains that a special government program that looks for ways to funnel public funds to religious entities is inherently problematic under the First Amendment.

These idiots waste the taxpayers money this way and then want to BORROW money to extend the unemployment benefits ? I don't think so. This is totally unbelievable. And now they want ANOTHER Stimulus program to rebuild (Save UNION JOBS AGAIN) the infrastructure ? Can you believe that ? The Obama Administration has been a FAILURE from begining to end. I don't know if we can survive two more years ? He should do the right thing and resign right now, what a total disaster he has been for this Country ! The waste, lies and fraud from this Administration are unbelievable ! To squander away taxpayers money like this and then come crying for the permission to BORROW more money for unemployment benefits ? Look at all the money he wasted on the First Stimulus ? Unless you were a union worker all you got was the bill, Teachers, State union workers, Police and Firefighters all got bailed out. This Administration is so dysfunctional it's Pathetic. How much longer is America going to put up with it ?

Let me get this straight. I am supposed to be surprised that a guy who spent twenty years in reverand Wright's cathedral of hate would spend $140mm trying to give the appearance of piety?

But remember Obozo didn't know he was like that. All he ever heard was love, Love ,Love coming from Wright. Just more Obama lies. America is starting to see through Obama and they sure don't like what they see. Can we take two more years ?

The entire stimulus was nothing more than a disgusting raid on the treasury.

You got that right ! Why do you think Ron Paul has been calling for an audit of the FED ? There is alot more they are hiding from us. All done with the blessing of the Obozo administration ! We have to get to the TRUTH. It's OUR MONEY and OUR COUNTRY. Where is the accountability ? And now they are printing money (Billions of dollars) out of thin air and want to BORROW more money to pay for unemployment extensions ? Does anyone see the madness here ? Totally unbelievable ! If the American people put up with this they deserve what they get !

got to start buying those VOTES now , not enough spent to buy 2010 election , but the boy king intends to buy every vote , and legislate new americans , DC voters asap , NOTHING will stop the american voter from ejecting this boy king from office by 2012 .

Any money pumped into our economy is going to have a stimulative effect. I have no complaints that stimulus dollars have been used to educate the ignorant, feed the hungry, and clothe and shelter the poor and homeless. It also makes sense that religiously affiliated buildings should receive money to make their furnaces and windows more energy efficient, as all such activity moves us toward our goals of greater energy efficiency and less energy dependence on unfriendly countries. But any religiously discriminatory hiring using federal funds should be investigated and stopped immediately if it is happening. Further, large religious rackets designed mainly to fleece the flock should be taxed. Pat Robertson's 700 Club, the Coral Ridge Ministry (still raising multimillions off a preacher who has been dead for over a year), the Billy/William Graham racket, James Dobson's Focus on Family -- all are political organizations thinly disguised as religious institutions. I say tax their income and all other so-called religious organizations that spend the large majority of their annual budgets on fundraising and not helping their less fortunate neighbors.

As long as the faih based group spends the money appropriately for humanitarian purposes. how do we know that "Non-faith based" organizations are being efficient and effective.

I was in Washington when this decision was made. it was we known and publicized. It is the Media that omits any coverage of a Christian initiative or any article putting the Christian church in a positive light unless it is about:

1) Homosexuals

2) Pedophile Priests

3) Or an assault on Menorrahs, the Nativity Scene, or the ever popular Christmas Tree which has its origin in German paganism.

As long as the faih based group spends the money appropriately for humanitarian purposes. how do we know that "Non-faith based" organizations are being efficient and effective.

I was in Washington when this decision was made. it was we known and publicized. It is the Media that omits any coverage of a Christian initiative or any article putting the Christian church in a positive light unless it is about:

1) Homosexuals

2) Pedophile Priests

3) Or an assault on Menorrahs, the Nativity Scene, or the ever popular Christmas Tree which has its origin in German paganism.

I've just about had it with Obama. Not enough fight in him for my tastes. Reaching across doesn't work - are you REALLY that stubborn barry?

He can't get the rich to pay their fair share but he can give my tax dollars to Churches?

What about separation of Church and State? And for all you Rethuglicans - before you start crowing remember Bush and his free money grab bag to churches in return for their mindless zealous support.

I had to laugh out loud at the remark that some Republicans tried to cast the stimulus as anti religious.

Politics in todays world is BS, all gold plated 4way revolving steamy piles of it.

To close - how the H E L L is the House having a vote a STUNT mR. Boner? GEt ready folks - thenext 2 years are going to be an utter failure.

WE will not recover - things will get worse thanks to the party of NO.

Democrats will sweep all branches again in 2012 and the Rethugs will scream and cry about the deficit (they created) - sound familiar? The American low brow fox watching Rtards will magically forget all the Rethuglican spending on a War that wasn't supposed to cost a 'single red cent...............bah - why do I even care? This country is going to Hell, quite possibly where it belongs'